Tech Gaming Hardware discussion (& Hardware Sales) thread

[Madmick]

So question on desktop versus laptop. Would buying a high end gaming laptop and using that to game at max settings, would that compromise the life of the laptop compared to similar use on a desktop? Also, are gaming laptops closing the performance gap with desktops?

The hardware's degradation will only be accelerated if the respective components are kept at temps above an optimal range (which can still be inside the component's stress limit). Laptop CPUs and GPUs tend to be lower-powered, and unless you calibrate them to not do so, they are also more likely to automatically downclock once they reach higher temps to avoid this.

So it all depends on your temps.

 

[jefferz]

I use an audio interface that does what you want, but it may be a bit more than what you need.. I use it for music production but it also doubles as my main audio device in my windows environment. I have headphones and speakers connected to it, never have to plug in or unplug anything. I have it connected via USB.

If you're interested look up Focusrite or Presonus audio interfaces at a music shop like Sweetwater, Guitar Center, etc.

thanks for the info. I’ll have to take a look.

 

[jefferz]

It appears Intel is making a gpu for us gamers.


Intel Xe-HPG: gaming GPU with ray tracing tech and GDDR6 ships in 2021
Intel announces new Xe microarchitecture variant: Xe-HPG -- a gaming-optimized GPU with ray tracing and GDDR6 memory ships in 2021.

Intel hosted its virtual Architecture Day to the media across the world, with a gigantic debriefing on what Intel has been up to across virtually its entire company -- but the most exciting thing (at least to me) was the introduction of the new Xe-HPG gaming-optimized architecture.
Intel's new Xe-HPG is for enthusiast gamers packing hardware ray tracing support, packing GDDR6 memory. To compare against the datacenter-focused Xe, with the Xe-HP -- which is powered by HBM memory. Intel stepping into the ray tracing ring with NVIDIA, and soon AMD with its RDNA 2 architecture is a big move.
The new Intel Xe-HPG is expected to ship in 2021, where I'm sure we'll hear more details on it early in the New Year. Raja Koduri, the chief architect and senior vice president of Intel's discrete graphics division, explained: "our enthusiast and gamer friends, we heard your requests for Xe for enthusiast gaming. We added a fourth microarchitecture to the Xe family: Xe-HPG optimized for gaming, with many new graphics features including ray tracing support. We expect to ship this microarchitecture in 2021 and I can't wait to get my hands-on this GPU!"

 

[jefferz]

I found some Opamp upgrades for Creative Sound Blaster Z, Zx, ZxR & Asus Xonar Essence STX sound cards which got me thinking. Some motherboards, mostly Gigabyte, allow you to change Opamps but does anyone actually do it?

Testing the actuators with me on it for the first time. Running great while running Assetto Corsa. Still working on my steering wheel and wiring for it. Hopefully next week or two the steering wheel will be done. I should say bump in the road.

Don't know if I've said it yet but this looks pretty cool. Have you been doing the CNC work or are you farming it out? I've got an old Bridgeport and have been thinking of retrofitting it to a CNC machine.

 

[jefferz]

 

[jefferz]

Team T-FORCE DARK Z 64GB (2x32gb) DDR4 3200 for $190!
https://www.newegg.com/team-64gb-28...820331492?Item=N82E16820331492&quicklink=true

 

[PEB]

Team T-FORCE DARK Z 64GB (2x32gb) DDR4 3200 for $190!
https://www.newegg.com/team-64gb-28...820331492?Item=N82E16820331492&quicklink=true

That sold out fast wow.

 

[jefferz]

That sold out fast wow.

They're taking back orders. The only question is if ram will drop even more by the time you get it.
Newegg has 128gb Adata 3.1 USB flash drives on sale for $14, they're on back order as well though. It still blows my mind at how cheap those have become. I didn't really need one but at that price I ordered one.

 

[PEB]

They're taking back orders. The only question is if ram will drop even more by the time you get it.
Newegg has 128gb Adata 3.1 USB flash drives on sale for $14, they're on back order as well though. It still blows my mind at how cheap those have become. I didn't really need one but at that price I ordered one.

I only wish I could say the same thing about GPU's lol. Crime bosses run Nvidia and AMD.

 

[jefferz]

Looks like Intel is going with chiplet designs for it's upcoming gpu's.

Lest anyone doubt that the 4-tile GPU doesn't actually exist and is merely a publicity stunt, Raja whipped out the large package and briefly flashed it at the camera during his Hot Chips presentation. And yes, it's really big — much bigger than any other chip package we've seen.
Xe HP only uses EMIB to scale to multi-tile configurations. Xe HPC will also include a Rambo Cache tile, Foveros die stacking, and Co-EMIB with additional enhancements. Ponte Vecchio is planned for use in the upcoming Aurora supercomputer, and it was supposed to be manufactured on Intel's now-delayed 7nm lithography.
In the meantime, Intel now has 1-tile, 2-tile, and 4-tile Xe HP silicon in its labs. As you'd expect, the EMIB linking means the packages for the latter two are basically 2x and 4x the size of the base design, so the GPUs require three separate sockets.
The 4-tile implementation of Xe HP Raja showed off is capable of around 42 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. However, that's not actually the maximum capability. Raja also mentioned that the 4-tile chip is capable of reaching "petaflops scale computing," or >1000 TFLOPS. That's thanks to the presence of tensor cores, though we don't know the exact configuration.
Like Nvidia's A100 architecture and Google's TPUv4, Xe HP supports tensor cores. We assume these are capable of 128 operations per cycle, with one tensor core per EU. With 2048 EUs, that gives us:
2048 × 128 × 2 (FMA) = 524,288
We're missing clock speed, which would suggest either a 2GHz baseline for one petaflop, or potentially a different tensor core arrangement that can do more than 128 ops per clock. Either way, it should make it much easier for supercomputers to reach the level of exascale computing.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raja-koduri-petaflops-scale-4-tile-xe-hp-gpu-hot-chips

 

[PEB]

Looks like Intel is going with chiplet designs for it's upcoming gpu's.

Lest anyone doubt that the 4-tile GPU doesn't actually exist and is merely a publicity stunt, Raja whipped out the large package and briefly flashed it at the camera during his Hot Chips presentation. And yes, it's really big — much bigger than any other chip package we've seen.
Xe HP only uses EMIB to scale to multi-tile configurations. Xe HPC will also include a Rambo Cache tile, Foveros die stacking, and Co-EMIB with additional enhancements. Ponte Vecchio is planned for use in the upcoming Aurora supercomputer, and it was supposed to be manufactured on Intel's now-delayed 7nm lithography.
In the meantime, Intel now has 1-tile, 2-tile, and 4-tile Xe HP silicon in its labs. As you'd expect, the EMIB linking means the packages for the latter two are basically 2x and 4x the size of the base design, so the GPUs require three separate sockets.
The 4-tile implementation of Xe HP Raja showed off is capable of around 42 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. However, that's not actually the maximum capability. Raja also mentioned that the 4-tile chip is capable of reaching "petaflops scale computing," or >1000 TFLOPS. That's thanks to the presence of tensor cores, though we don't know the exact configuration.
Like Nvidia's A100 architecture and Google's TPUv4, Xe HP supports tensor cores. We assume these are capable of 128 operations per cycle, with one tensor core per EU. With 2048 EUs, that gives us:
2048 × 128 × 2 (FMA) = 524,288
We're missing clock speed, which would suggest either a 2GHz baseline for one petaflop, or potentially a different tensor core arrangement that can do more than 128 ops per clock. Either way, it should make it much easier for supercomputers to reach the level of exascale computing.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raja-koduri-petaflops-scale-4-tile-xe-hp-gpu-hot-chips

It's going to be banana's because Intel realizes so much of their future is riding on it. Even though Intel still the biggest fish in the pond they know this is not what Wall Street is interested in they want to know how they are moving forward just ask Elon Musk. Elon net worth flew past 80 billion dollars not because he has the biggest car company no because Wall Street starting to believe he can pull it off. Intel needs to have this hit one out of the park.

 

[jefferz]

Thought I share with sherdog some of the early designs of my platform and how it can also support 2 HD short throw projectors as well as a Samsung 49 inch or other curved display screen. Made major changes such as my new actuators and the base of the platform. Wider to allow you to remove the seat and put on other various accessories such as a surf board, snow board, skateboard for the projection screen accessory. Projection screen will stand at eye height and is adjustable.

you should start a thread on this so people call follow along or go back and look more easily.

 

[jefferz]

Nvidia's Geforce Now now supports ChromeOS
Starting today, Nvidia's Geforce Now streaming service will support ChromeOS (in beta), expanding the service's OS to support a wider range of devices. Now, Geforce Now can stream PC games to Android devices, Nvidia Shield products, ChromeOS, Windows and macOS.
https://www.overclock3d.net/news/so...5vMMTQLJvRRWjtK_fdQ0SEp-BkHZV7sZMLckwLqsmR0Nk

 

[jefferz]

Try a solid state headphone amp instead of a tube or hybrid or you can also use vibration dampeners like silicone or Sorbothane rings for tubes. Schiit even makes a pure gaming oriented amp in the Hel, but you rarely see any up for sale.

Have you ever used Topping brand stuff? Their MX3 does what I want but the measurements aren't that great.

 

[rob mafia]

It's going to be banana's because Intel realizes so much of their future is riding on it. Even though Intel still the biggest fish in the pond they know this is not what Wall Street is interested in they want to know how they are moving forward just ask Elon Musk. Elon net worth flew past 80 billion dollars not because he has the biggest car company no because Wall Street starting to believe he can pull it off. Intel needs to have this hit one out of the park.

it'll be interesting to see how they're allocating their 180k wafers from tsmc.

 

[PEB]

He's giving away a HP Reverb G2 VR headset.
https://gleam.io/Hu2QA/mrtv-reverb-g2-giveaway

 

[Swing]

Cool GN video on properly mounting liquid AIOs. I was curious why I'd often see users talk about AIOs only lasting for a year or two when reviewers typically say they last as long as you'd plan to use your computer. I've only ever used air so I wasn't aware of any of these common installation mistakes.

 

[Madmick]

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Flagship Ampere Gaming Graphics Card Pictured, Massive Triple-Slot Founders Edition Cooling Design With $1400 US Price
Not sure if everyone saw this already, but if this leaked photo is real, I'm not sure any NVIDIA gamers with a sub-40L case is going to be happy. It's consistent with the earlier leak I posted around 1-2 months ago, and was reported only 11 days away from the launch event.

 

[jefferz]

Say goodbye to Corsairs quality. Pretty soon we’ll start seeing corners being cut to maximize profits and keeping the share holders happy while the quality of product will keep getting worse and worse.
Equity firms have been doing for years, that’s why you can’t buy anything worth a shit anymore. They’ll strip all value out of the company, the product quality will go way down, and eventually sold to another equity firm who repeats the same thing until there’s nothing left. But hey, a couple people will get rich off of it so it’s ok.


As spotted by Forbes, gaming peripheral and hardware company Corsair Gaming has filed an initial public offering (IPO) with an initial target price of $100 million. Corsair's sales for 2020 thus far weigh in at $1.3 billion, so the $100 million filing seems to be an initial value and could be adjusted. Corsair plans to trade under the CRSR symbol on the Nasdaq.
Corsair is currently owned by majority holder EagleTree Capital and several other minority shareholders.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/c...3ywkDf63ZKFt9Dhyqi7vQ0Vd-vVZivkEsYpfXWW4Hav2s

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Flagship Ampere Gaming Graphics Card Pictured, Massive Triple-Slot Founders Edition Cooling Design With $1400 US Price
Not sure if everyone saw this already, but if this leaked photo is real, I'm not sure any NVIDIA gamers with a sub-40L case is going to be happy. It's consistent with the earlier leak I posted around 1-2 months ago, and was reported only 11 days away from the launch event.

Jesus, it’s like the Anthony Johnson of gpus.